College sacks professor of religion for criticising Islam

A professor of religion has been sacked from a Catholic college in Switzerland for criticising Islam in his classes, writes Jonathan Luxmoore.

The Swiss Catholic Apic news agency said the action had been taken against Thomas Banwart after a Muslim pupil complained to directors of the Lucerne college. It added that local parents had submitted a “long list of polemics” about incidents involving the professor.

“The critical, negative and unilateral manner in which Thomas Banwart described Islam went against the objectives of religious dialogue,” Jurgen Rotner, who heads religious education in the parish, told the agency, which said the professor was appealing his dismissal. The Catholic Bishops’

Conference has repeatedly appealed for good relations with Muslims in the country, where 65 per cent of citizens voted in a September 2013 referendum to ban Islamic veils and headscarves.